Warnings as GP numbers fall

The NHS is seeing the first sustained fall in GP numbers in the UK for 50 years, new research has shown.

A study by the Nuffield Trust found that the number of GPs per 100,000 people has fallen from nearly 65 in 2014 to 60 last year. The drop comes as the population is rising.

The BBC says the NHS is “struggling to attract junior doctors to become GPs” and that the numbers retiring early have been “increasing”.

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Meanwhile, a separate poll of 1,681 GPs found they are working an average 11-hour day, with eight hours of clinical care and three hours of admin. The Guardian says the news “prompted a warning that some [doctors] are becoming ill because they have to put in such long hours”.

An average GP is dealing with 11 more patients than the safe number of 30 per day - with 10% saying they have dealt with double the safe limit. GPs warned that they are so overwhelmed with patients they are making avoidable mistakes.

Some practitioners said this meant they struggled to be sympathetic with patients. “There is a point where I feel cognitively drained… There is not an iota of empathy left,” one GP told the trade magazine, Pulse.

Another said: “By lunchtime, I felt on the edge and risking missing urgent tasks and contacts, thus affecting patient safety.”

Dr Matt Mayer, former head of workforce issues for the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: “The results of this survey are concerning and confirm GPs are working far beyond their capacity. It isn’t sustainable.”

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “In my own practice recently, I had a 12-hour day and 100 patient contacts.”

In 2015, the government promised to increase the number of GPs by 5,000 by 2020 but it is now predicted that GP shortages in England will almost triple to 7,000 by 2023/24.

NHS England says that almost nine out of 10 salaried GPs currently work part-time.